Flood and Landlord Insurance Queensland

[ABC123]

Hi there,

I have an investment property in Brisbane and Ive discovered that the Body Corporate's building insurance policy (AMP) doesn't cover floods. The BCC's flood report shows that the whole unit complex is in an overflow path (although not near a river /creek) so there is some risk of flood damage. I also have Terri Sheer landlord insurance as well, but this does not cover flood. I would prefer to stick to Terri Sheer if possible as from what I can gather they are one of the best landlord insurance companies. The BC building policy is valid until mid-2011 which is also roughly when the next AGM takes place.

My understanding is that probably the best thing for me to do is get some sort of interim cover for the flood component until the next AGM whereby I can put forward a motion for flood cover to be added to the exisiting building policy.

I dont want to fork out for a full building or landlords insurance policy that covers flood and overinsures me - unless I have to. I would prefer some sort of cheaper interim cover (if such a thing exists) for the flood component only.

Any advice?

Cheers and thanks in advance.

 

[Peterw]

If you log onto the Brisbane City Council website, you can do a flood search, and you can get the 1 in 20, 1 in 50, and 1 in 100 year flood levels.
Here is the link.

http://flood.brisbane.qld.gov.au/floodwise_property_report/

From there you can identify the risk and level that may be attributed to your unit. If your unit is above the level, then I am not sure that you need to worry. Hope that helps.

 

[Perp]

My understanding is that probably the best thing for me to do is get some sort of interim cover for the flood component until the next AGM whereby I can put forward a motion for flood cover to be added to the exisiting building policy.

I dont want to fork out for a full building or landlords insurance policy that covers flood and overinsures me - unless I have to.

Are you sure that it's even possible for you to insure the building in this situation, ie as an owner of a single unit within a body corporate? If so, then I agree with your intended course of action.

But if my suspicions are correct and you can't insure just your portion of the building against flood, separately from the body corporate insurance, I'd be tempted to walk away.

 

[ABC123]

My understanding so far from speaking to the existing insurer is that I either : a) have the body corporate agree to top up the existing policy with the flood cover component or B) I pay the top up myself for the whole complex (which would be $800 pa). The policy does cover flash flood runoff but not flood per se.

I can also get flood cover for the contents under a seperate policy though.

Im still waiting for a broker to get back to me with an answer for how I can cover the building.

 

[stevie_sloth]

I always thought you couldn't separately insure your property if it's part of a strata title scheme thing...

Whenever we get claims (at my work) for building damage and contents damage for an apartment in a complex, the insurance companies are different for both building and contents. Sometimes the owners will not understand and try to get their building damage fixed by the contents insurers and we tell them they have to only go through their body corp insurers.

But yes, it does suck. Our building is insured through CHU and they don't pay for exploratory costs for plumbing, etc, so when our dishwasher leaked 2 years ago, we couldn't get reimbursed for the cost of the plumber to come out and find out what was wrong with it and why it had leaked, which is REQUIRED by CHU to process the claim for resultant damage. VERY annoying. But we had no choice as we couldn't just change insurers as it's the body corp one.

 

[handyandy]

My understanding so far from speaking to the existing insurer is that I either : a) have the body corporate agree to top up the existing policy with the flood cover component or B) I pay the top up myself for the whole complex (which would be $800 pa). The policy does cover flash flood runoff but not flood per se.

I can also get flood cover for the contents under a seperate policy though.

Im still waiting for a broker to get back to me with an answer for how I can cover the building.

I would speak to the strata manager to get them to convene a meeting, either an executive or general meeting, and get the BC to vote on whether they want to extend the insurance policy for flood damage.

Remember the but of the members may still vote against extending the policy.

Under no circumstance would I pay the top up for the whole complex.

To convince the other members to vote for the extra cover outline the sort of costs each member will be liable for should there be a flood. Fear works every time, just look at the government and how good they are at using the concept.

Cheers

 

[Seeka]

Any updates?

ABC123, wondering how you went in the recent floods? Was your building affected, and if so, are you up for additional repair costs?

 

[ABC123]

Hi,

No I wasn't affected by the floods. Close to the flood zone but not really in it as far as I can see.